Dr. Tom Friedman, director of the CDC says “Getting the flu vaccine is the best way to protect yourself against the flu”.
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The current vaccine, which has been modified to target a strain that causes millions of illnesses past year , “should be a good match against this season’s influenza, but only time will tell”, Frieden said.
Indeed, Vanderbilt University infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner comments, “It was a disappointing year from the point of view of what the vaccine can do”.
Frieden expressed confidence that this year’s re-formulation will be more effective, although he did add that flu viruses are “unpredictable” and that the CDC would be closely monitoring this season’s strains in case they need to update guidance for health care providers.
It’s nearly that time of year again – flu season.
This year there are a myriad choices in how you can get your vaccine, which typically cost between $32 to $40, but are covered by many health insurance carriers without a co-pay. The health department will offer flu vaccine to the general public beginning October 1.
The 2014-2015 season had the highest hospitalization rate among seniors that the CDC had ever documented.
Local health officials also urged people to get a flu shot and avoid being swayed by last year’s mismatched vaccine.
CDC said past year , at least 145 children died of flu, above the yearly average of 100, a number Frieden called an underestimate. “A lot of people didn’t get the flu vaccine like we had advised and that really, I feel, contributed to the large numbers that we saw past year “.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends an annual influenza vaccine for everyone six months of age and older.
There were some good aspects about last year’s flu season.
This year, 171 million doses of the vaccine were made; this is enough to vaccinate over half of the United States population.
Flu is especially unsafe for people over age 65, young children, pregnant women and people with chronic health conditions such as asthma or heart disease. “We’ve had so many instances… a child went to have the vaccine, got very, very sick, and now is autistic”, said billionaire and GOP front-runner Donald Trump. Frieden himself rolled up his sleeve on Thursday and got a regular shot. This injection method is only available for adults 18 to 64 years of age and is only used for the delivery of AFLURIA®, a trivalent flu vaccine.
The Southern Nevada Health District will start offering the flu vaccine Monday at all of its centers.
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This year’s vaccine contains protection against that bug and other strains that specialists consider most likely to spread.
